Practice racket



March 31, 1970 F. A. MCPHERSON PRACTICE RACKET Filed Oct. 24, 1965 aII//IIlIn- -iiw INVENTOR. FRANCES A. Mc PHERSON BY W 53 United States Patent 3,503,611 PRACTICE RA'CKET Frances A. McPherson, Madison, Wis. (20 Edgewood Road, Durham, NH. 03824) Filed Oct. 24, 1965, Ser. No. 504,650 Int. Cl. A63b 61/00, 69/38 US. Cl. 27329 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A racket for tennis and other games using a ball. The racket has a pouch for catching the ball, the pouch portion has an attached cover and bag fitted on two sides of an annular portion of the racket frame so that a stand-' ard tennis racket can be used without strings. The pouch is provided with an opening for receiving therethrough the handle of a tennis racket and the cover portion of the pouch is provided with a centrally located hole for passage of a ball which is caught and retained by the bag portion of the pouch.

This invention relates to rackets for tennis and other games using a ball in which the racket has a pouch for catching a ball.

More particularly it is an object of this invention to provide a racket as described which is especially well designed for use in the practice training of tennis players.

More particularly it is an object of this invention to provide a racket as described the back or bag portion of the pouch of which is provided with a construction particularly effective in providing the objective of making a whacking sound as a ball strikes the back part of the bag so as to indicate to the user the relative power of the tennis stroke and also the result of breaking the speed of the ball effectively so that it does not bounce out of the pouch, the construction being such that the latter result is attained with a pouch of minimum depth to facilitate a quick reaching into the pouch for the ball.

Still another object is to provide a racket as described the pouch portion of which has an attached cover and bag fitting on two sides of the annular portion of a racket frame so that a standard tennis racket frame can be used without strings together with the special training pouch.

A further object is to provide a pouch as described having an opening in it for receiving therethrough the handle of the tennis racket.

Still another object is to provide a pouch as described which can be readily removed and attached to a tennis racket frame.

A further object is to provide a pouch having a bag portion which is of a particular shape for gaining a minimum of bulkiness at seams, and also for attaining the results with a minimum of weight.

Other and further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, drawings and claims, the scope of the invention not being limited to the drawings themselves as the drawings are only for the purpose of illustrating a way in which the principles of this invention can be applied.

Other embodiments of the invention utilizing the same or equivalent principles may be used and structural changes may be made as desired by those skilled in the art without departing from the present invention and the purview of the appended claims.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a top plan view of the pouched racket of this invention shown as held horizontally.

3,503,611 Patented Mar. 31, 1970 FIGURE 2 is a side elevation of the pouch end of the invention.

FIGURE 3 is a vertical section taken along the lines 33 of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 4 is a vertical section taken along the line.

The practice racket of this invention is generally indicated at 10 in FIGURE 1 and comprises a frame 12 having a generally planar annular portion 16 and a handle 20 attached to the annular portion 16 at 24 with the handle attached to and extending away from one side of the annular portion 16 generally in the plane of the annular portion 16. I

It will be seen that the racket 12 is preferably of the nature of a tennis racket with the strings removed.

In accordance with this invention, a pouch generally indicated at 30 is attached to the racket 12, the pouch having a ball-catching bag 36 of flexible material disposed on one side of the annular portion of said frame 16 with the open end of the bag 36 shown generally at 38 and facing the hole 40 formed by the annular portion 16.

The pouch 30 further has a cover 48 disposed across the end opening 38 of the bag 36, the cover 48 having a ball port 60 extending therethrough having edges spaced from the sides of the bag for substantially retaining a ball within the pouch 30.

The ball port 60 will be seen to be elongated in the direction of elongation of the racket frame 12 and complemental to the oval shape of the annular portion 16 so as to encompass an area with respect to the annular portion 16 which is the area in which a ball is struck by the strings of a standard tennis racket.

Suitable means can be provided for attaching the cover 48 to the bag 36 and preferably this is accomplished by a direction interconnection of the two along a seam 60' extending along the outer edge of the annular portion 16 of the frame, both the bag portion 36 and the cover 40 being formed of flexible material.

The bag 36 has a bottom portion which is of a double thickness of material having two portions 84 and 86 disposed below and above material forming the innermost part 90 of an annular side wall portion 94 of the pouch bag 36.

At least the majority of the annular side wall portion 94 is flexible and is formed of multiple sections 98 attached together at seams 100 extending toward the bottom portion 80 from the upper edge of the bag portion 36 at the seam 60'.

The seams 100, therefore, tend to converge toward each other and toward the bottom portion 80, whereas the bottom portion 80 has its two portions 84 and 86 disposed substantially in parallelism normally and in parallelism with the annular portion 16 of the racket whereby the bottom portion 80 tends to remain in this position until struck by a ball at which time it bends and further tends to tug on the annular portion straightening out any fullness or bends therein such as those best seen in FIGURE 3 at 110.

The effect of this is to cause the speed of the ball to be broken sufficiently gradually as to tend to minimize any tendency of the ball to bounce back out through the opening 60. The construction tends to do this effectively so that the depth of the bag portion 36 can be at minimum to achieve these results whereby the ball can be quickly retrieved from the bag portion 36.

The extra thickness of material in the bottom portion 80 tends to cause the ball to make a whacking sound as it strikes the bottom portion 80, thus giving the user a feeling of the amount of power involved in the stroke.

As best seen in FIGURES 1 and 2, both the cover 48 and the bag 36 have protruding portions and 140,

respectively, which extend on the respective sidesof the handle 20, being secured together along a portion 142 of the seam 60 with a handle opening provided therebetween at 170 through which the handle 20- extends.

The annular side portion '94 of the bag inclines on all sides downwardly and inwardly from its upper end to its bottom portion or back portion 80'. This conserves material and keeps the size of the bag portion at a minimum for minimum weight.

As best seen in FIGURE 1, the cover 48 has a slit 164 extending from its ball port 60 to that one of its sides which is adjacent the handle 20- and releasable means, preferably a zipper 174, is attached to those portions of the cover which are disposed along the slit 164 for holding the edges of the slit releasably together.

As thus described, it will be seen that this invention provides a removable pouch which can be quickly attached to a stringless tennis racket or to a special racket frame, the pouch being adapted to emit a resounding whack when struck with a ball because of its relatively thick bottom or back portion 80, with the ball being prevented from excessive bouncing out of the pouch because of a construction in which the annular side wall 94 of the bag is relatively thin and flexible compared to the whack sound producing bottom 80'.

From the foregoing description, it is thought to be obvious that a practice racket constructed in accordance with my invention is particularly well adapted for use, by

. reason of the convenience and facility with which it may be assembled and operated, and it will also be obvious that my invention can be changed and modified without departing from the principles and spirit thereof, and for this reason, I do not wish to be understood as limiting myself to the precise arrangement and formation of the several parts herein shown in carrying out my invention in practice, except as claimed.

I claim:

1. A device for practice swinging at balls comprising a frame having a generally planar annular portion, said frame having a handle attached to and extending away from said annular portion, said handle extending away from said annular frame portion generally along a straight line which is parallel to said annular frame portion, a ball catching bag of flexible material disposed on one side of said annular portion of said frame with the open end of said bag facing the hole in said annular portion, a flexible ball-retaining cover having a substantial area disposed across the end opening of said bag, said cover having a ball port extending centrally therethrough having edges substantially spaced from the sides of said bag so as to substantially trap a ball in saidbag by caus ing the cover to block travel of a ball outwardly from the interior of said bag to a substantial degree allowing the ball to escape only through saidhole, saidcoverand said bag being secured together at least at sufficient places around the circumference of said cover to prevent escape of a ball from between said cover and said bag, said cover and bag forming an enclosing assembly having a handle opening in a side thereof through which said handle extends, said cover being disposed in a plane parallel to said annular frame portion, the flexibility of said bag being sufficient to prevent excessive bouncing of the ball therefrom.

2. The combination of claim 1 in which said cover has a bottom portion and an annular side portion, said bottom portion being disposed transversely to said side portion.

3. The combination of claim 1 in which said cover has a bottom portion and an annular side portion, said bottom portion being disposed transversely to said side portion, said bottom portion being disposed generally parallel to said annular frame portion.

4. The combination of claim 1 in which said cover is disposed on the opposite side of said annular frame portion from said bag, said bag having an annular side portion, and in which said means securing said bag and said cover to said annular frame portion is defined by an attachment of the edges of said annular side portion of said bag at the open end of said bag to the outer edges of said cover.

5. The combination of claim 4 in which said cover has a slit extending from its ball port to that one of its sides which is adjacent said handle, and releasable means for securing those portions of said cover together which are disposed along said slit.

References Cited 4/1935 Great Britain.

RICHARD C. P-INKHAM, Primary Examiner THEATR-I CE BROWN, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 

